The first day of August inspired me to sit down and write about the things I loved most about summers back in the day…That and the fact that my contract job ended and I’m sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear back from any job I applied for. So between me biting my fingernails down to bare existence, I’ll rejoice in the good ol’ days when summer meant time off from homework, teachers who made your life hell and nasty cafeteria food. So let’s sit back, relax and remember those hot as hell days we wish for again…

Watch cartoons all day…

Nickelodeon was at its prime in the 90’s and we took full advantage of a channel that was dedicated to our animated friends. We no longer had to wonder what we were missing while we were stuck in a spelling test, for we had the entire day to indulge in Doug and Rugrats. We also didn’t miss any part of the afternoon blocks that once flooded the after school time slots on network TV…Darkwing Duck!

Blast the Super Soakers…

As soon as the weather permitted, Super Soaker commercials were plastered on every break, and we begged our moms and dads for the best one. Some were able to get their hands on the biggest, and some of weren’t, but at the end of the day…It wasn’t the size of your soaker, it was how you used it, wait, what?

Go to the movies…

Summer Blockbusters were one of the coolest parts about that season (and still are)…and if you were old enough your mom would just drop you off with some cash and let you run wild at the theater. Movies, a class act babysitter.

Play outside…

Kids today might find it strange that kids actually enjoyed getting outdoors once upon a time, but it’s true. Sometimes imagination was the best toy in the world.

Sleepovers…

With bedtimes lifted and all the time in the world, sleeping over at your friends’ houses was one of the best ways to beat the heat. Plus, it was almost a given that their parents would order pizza, rent a movie and have a stockpile of board games ready when you got there!

Catch up on zzz’s…

When all else failed, your friends were on vacation, TV was all reruns, all you could do was sleep and let your dreams take you away until reality got more interesting.

Today work got out later than usual and I was forced to sit on the Los Angeles Metro bored out of my mind as a woman continued to spill over to my part of the seat. That got me thinking…what did I used to do when I was a mere child in the 90’s and bored? Thinking long and hard, I came up with things I did and some that I’m pretty sure most other 90’s kids did. I came up with a sinful six, comment and add more. Maybe the next time I’m bored on a weekend, I can use yours to pass the time!

Find everything in the picture search in Highlights and circle them in pen to piss off your family. This was the ultimate payback to my mom when she wouldn’t buy me Backstreet Boy magazines.

Arrange Barbies clothes in color order…then by season…then by event. Hey, Barbie had places to go, people to see.

Put you 96 Crayolas in alphabetical order because any kid who kept then safe and sound in the order they came in was a L7 weenie!

Make a puff paint shirt. Decorate it with awesome song titles like “MMMBop” or winking happy faces.

Pretend the floor is lava and make your younger siblings cry when they slip an you insist they’re now one leg down, but ensure then to look on the bright side…they still have one.

The only reason to wake up on a long hard week of arithmetic and learning 10 new spelling words was the promise of an amazing set of Saturday morning programming. The crack of dawn until the early afternoon was dedicated to kids. Our parents said, “Don’t you dare wake me up.” You stayed as quiet as possible as you enjoyed classic Looney Tunes and ate hugest bowl of Lucky Charms. Oh, those were the days.

Today you have to stretch to find a network showcasing these kinds of Saturday mornings. Hannah Montana isn’t Saturday, and aren’t kids done with her anyway? Nevertheless, it’s sad kids today have no reason to wake up early on the weekend.

Okay, i can’t diss Ms. Montana. I enjoyed that how too much for an adult, but remember back in the day when the live action offered up to is was badass like Power Rangers and Beetleborgs? And for the Tweens and teens, NBCs TNBC? One World anyone? City Guys? Oh, those were the days.

It’s time to end this rant/appreciation for a time that once was and what it’s turned into. Hopefully TV programmers and parents who grew up with a reason to call Saturday morning a safe haven will do something about it. TV stations offer up more and parents, if they won’t? Buy some old school DVDs and wake your kid up to watch.

How I came upon this gem is beyond me. I remember waiting for it come on TV and my mom and dad (there on his weekly visit) sitting on the couch, me on the floor, eyes wide. Always a kid with an active imagination, I loved the idea of friends only you could see. Plus, Fred was crude, hilarious and easy on the eyes. Thank someone this took the leap from VHS to DVD sooner than later because now I watch it anytime, which is usually once a month. I take a Saturday, sit with a bag of Doritos and indulge.

But why is this movie one to highlight? Well it’s not because it’s my all-time favorite movie (if we ever had a trivia contest, take notes. I wanted to showcase Drop Dead Fred because of what it stands for as a whole.

Lizzie was a precocious child who took had herself an imaginary friend names “Drop Dead Fred.” Her mom was a “mega bitch” and her dad was a saint. When the mega bitch traps Fred in a jack-in-the-box, Lizzie’s life takes a turn. Fast forward to the dreary adult Lizzie and she’s down in the dumps, literally. She’s separated from her husband and unemployed; luck hates her. So Fred appears again and won’t go away until she’s happy again. The back and forth between these two cause the mega bitch to take medicated action…I don’t want to write the whole plot, but all you have to know is that this movie is awesome for many reasons…

The major reason though? To me it was about showcasing that you don’t need the “normal” friend or life to be happy. You have to shake the shit and get on the track that’s the best fir for you and not a route that someone else thinks is good for you.

Drop Dead Fred is a necessity for all 90’s kids to have watched based on the fact that it embodies the idea of childhood, which kids today lack.

Are kids today even excited about new toys? Remember the insanity that surrounded Pogs? You just don’t see that today…Unless you replace the word “toy” with “app.” It’s a shame that the youth is wasting away the time of their lives when their only responsibility is brushing their teeth. So let us adults take a break from stupid work and relationship stress and remember our favorite play things.

10. Creepy Crawlers

Move over Easy –Bake Oven! Who needed brownies and mini cakes when they could have ghoulish night crawlers and spiders to munch on?

9. Password Journal

When those little side locks that had the bendable key failed, the tech savvy 90’s was there to save every girl’s deepest, darkest secrets like who was the cutest in the class photo and why she hated her BFF for getting the latest Lisa Frank stuff before her.

8. Cool Tools

Yes! A toy that further pushed gender stereotypes! Cool Tools let future handymen get a head start. The saws didn’t work and the hammer couldn’t kill a fly, but that didn’t take away from their cool factor at all.

7. Skip-it

“The very best thing of all? There’s a counter on this ball.” Basically You put your foot in the hoop and do the skip like action while it counts. It seemed like a trick to get us away from Saturday Morning goodness, but alas I had one until my mom ran it over. Total “skips”…0.

6. Bop-It

What was even the point of this one? It makes very little sense but made its creators a butt load of money when it hit the Toys R’ Us shelves.

5. Polly Pocket/Mighty Max

They’re going to share because one was a feminine world adorned in pastels and the other was a dark realm with skulls. In the end both were micro mini play sets that were huge amounts of fun.

4. Power Ranger

This one needs no definition or explanation because they were awesome and we all know it, especially the way their heads flipped!

3. Barbie

By the time the 90’s rolled around Barbie was already entering her 30’s, but that doesn’t mean that she should be excluded. In that decade she was given a Hip-Hop makeover, had a stint as a Baywatch lifeguard, given a kid sister named Kelly and well, this list could take all day. Bottom line? The 90’s was the last time Barbie strived because do we even dare mention those Bratz atrocities?

2. Giga Pets/Tamagotchis

To prove you could care for a real life cat, dog or alien (that’s a little absurd), and way before the Internet games like FarmVille, these handheld pets were all the rage. And if things weren’t going the way you planned, a simple paperclip to the reset button made your pet brand new. Let’s hope kids were smart enough to real animals didn’t work that way.

1. Pogs

A cardboard like circle with graphics from TV shows to rad skulls that you had to flip over with a larger circle called a slammer. When we explain Pogs to our children, we will sound like we grew up in a time of the Great Depression because when you think about it…weren’t Pogs a glamorized version of Jacks and Marbles? This doesn’t mean I don’t carry around a slammer to this day…

American Reunion opens this weekend and it brings back so many memories of the original that came out at the end of an era, the 90’s. It might’ve been the first raunchy thing most of us seen, well if our parents are reading…we never seen American Pie until we were older , right? The best high school reunion is on the horizon, so below is a countdown of the top 10 teen movies of the 90’s, and amazing lines from them. If there’s ones missing that you would’ve included, share them here in the comments!

The Virgin Suicides
“…you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.”

Drive Me Crazy
“You think you’re so James Dean, Chase!”

Cruel Intentions
“…A little toy I like to play with.”

Varsity Blues
“You got to be the dumbest smart kid I know.”

The Craft
“We are the weirdos, mister.”

Can’t Hardly Wait
“Yo, I gotta have sex tonight!”

10 Things I Hate About You
“But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you.”

She’s All That
“I feel just like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. You know, except for the whole hooker thing.”

Hey Everyone! This is Bruder here! Daniel let me decide to write a 90’s related article for the blog so since im a gearhead I though I do something about popular 90’s cars So lets get to the article!

1990 Madza Miata

These cars were inspired by 1960’s British sport’s cars. They’re lightweight design made them pretty quick and I’d doubt they would withstand a major car accident.

1991 Chevy Caprice

These cars were actually to compete with Chrysler for the police market. GM took it over for about 80% of the sales, you’d see alot of these cars as police cruisers back in the days.

1996 GM EV1

These cars are both considered a revolutionary car and a commercial failure. You were able to lease these green electric cars from Saturn dealers around California. The discontinuation of these gems is still controversial. It has inspired a documentary film regarding this topic…..The remaining cars were reprocessed by GM and crushed while a certain number are on display in museums.

1997 Plymouth Prowler

Now these beauts were one of my childhood favorites! The retro style design was a throwback to the 1930’s hot rods, these were shown as a concept back in 1993 until Chrysler decided to make them into production in 1997. Causing Chrysler’s rep for bringing sexy concept cars to life as full production models.

1998 Toyota Supra

Believe it or not these things used to cost $50,000 back in the days. Now a days they’re a gem for the import scene.

1999 VS Beetle

These classic cars were brought back to life in the 90s and sold like hotcakes!

Monte Carlo Z-34

This thing was like a 2 door Lumina on steroids. 200 BHP 3.4 Liter V-6 this thing was a pretty fast and stylish car!

1996 Dodge Viper

Now these cars turned heads on the road! These beasts were loaded with V-10 engines that gave the Corvette the chills. It also had it’s own television series!

1990-1996 Nissan 300ZX

these 300 Horse Power beauts followed the trend of returning fast cars for the 90s. But thanks to the Truck/SUV craze it pretty much killed it’s sales. But still producing today it still turns heads! Oddly enough I wouldn’t mind owning one!